Got a reply from my complaint to the BBC within the day to be fair to them:
Dear Alex,
Thanks very much for taking the time to write in and I am sorry you feel our
football coverage has let you down.
I will try to explain a little around how we gather stories such as these ones,
but I hope you understand I cannot go into specifics around the story you
mention.
Before I say anything, I will say that my editorial standards, and those of the
BBC, are a huge priority, getting stories correct and double checking that they
are correct is extremely important in my day to day work.
In terms of stories like the Bale one and many others you will see, I often
get asked why there are no quotes to support what it is we write - proof, if you
like, that the story is true.
Increasingly, sports journalism and broadcasting has to rely on off the record
briefings from football clubs, agents and even players. These are instances when
you are given information from one of these sources on the understanding it is
off the record and not able to be attributed to the source, or quoted in any
way. So while we know the story is true, we may know that a club or player feels
a certain way or is trying to sign a certain player, we cannot provide a quote
within our story to support that.
This has always happened to some extent, but it is certainly on the rise as
clubs, players, governing bodies and many other facets of sport and football use
this technique in their dealings with the media.
Clubs themselves don't' always want to reveal the sensitive nature of
negotiations and talks behind the scenes, while other clubs in those same
negotiations may not feel as cagey about revealing information. That is where a
clash can occur.
I hope that goes some way to explaining why you might see information in our
stories that is not supported by quotes, but I can assure you the content is
checked and double checked to make sure it is correct.
I hope you continue to stick with our football coverage in the future, because I
promise that you can rely on our dedication to make sure our stories are correct
and trustworthy.
Kind regards,
Ben
BBC Sport